While I haven’t explicitly stated it, my blogging policy this primary season has been to call out nonsense whenever I see it rather than to advocate vociferously for a candidate. Neither candidate being particularly progressive in my book (yes, I was one of those Kucinich supporters), I long decided that my focus would be on the fair treatment of the two candidates and that I would remain neutral on the blog (I did, however, vote for Obama in the NY primary). I tried to give credit where credit was due and damn when damning was called for. I realized this morning that taking such a stance, in the wake of so much racist and sexist nonsense, has had the effect of neutralizing my enthusiasm for the historic nature of this primary season because I woke up this morning and had the moment that I should have had last night.

Holy shit! A black man is the presumptive Democratic nominee for President of the freaking United States!

Um, that’s kinda huge! Sure, I think he’s a centrist. Sure, I’m mad at him for throwing his pastor and church under the bus. But as Cooper points out in comments, that’s what politicians have to do sometimes. And yeah, I’m probably too idealistic when it comes to these things. And yeah, he’s not exactly getting fair treatment in that regards (what church does Clinton go to, again?) When it all comes down to it though, I just witnessed the day that I seriously never believed I would see.

A black person is the presumptive Democratic nominee for President of the United States.

When I think about that, I am floored. I want to go out and hug every damn black person in town (where I live, that would take all of ten minutes to do).

This contest has opened up a lot of doors. It will be infinitely easier for all women and people of color to break into electoral politics. I have no doubt now that I will live to see the first woman President of the U.S. (maybe even a woman of color!) I’m not saying it’ll be a piece of cake now, but we have to recognize that a huge door has been opened. It has been a painful process; I know that I’ve been personally hurt by a lot of the racist shit I’ve seen, and I know a lot of women have been personally hurt by the sexist shit they’ve seen, but the door has been opened, and I think it’s time to celebrate that fact.